Date: July 7 2004

Submitted: Boston Globe, but not published

This administration besmirches everything it touches.

The general problem is that it is beset by group-think. We have seen the damage done by
group-think in a number of domain: in the way in which intelligence about Iraq was used;
in the failure to consider the appropriate number of troops needed to pacify Iraq, and in
the decision to ignore the sensibilities of America's oldest allies.

We see a new instance of group-think in the administration's April ruling on American
scientific representation to the World Health Organization (Globe Editorial, July 2).
Only scientists who have been vetted for political correctness by the administration can
serve on WHO committees and panels. Instead of allowing the WHO to choose the best
scientists, the administration will put forward scientists who adhere to its political
agendas on issues like AIDS prevention (mainly abstinence), women's reproductive health
(no abortion under any circumstances), and pollution (nothing that will constrain the
production of greenhouse gases).

Here we see the administration trying to knobble the expert panels that decide on
scientific policy by appointing members with an administration perspective to those
panels. I see no problem in the administration pushing strongly for its values in its
evidence to these panels (as long as the science is not distorted in the process). I see
great benefit from the confrontation of conflicting value positions. I see major problems
in appointing scientists with preconceived positions to the panels. World Health will
suffer from the administration's passionate embrace of group-think.